Overview

• The House speaker said Friday that the president served as an FBI informant to help take down Jeffrey Epstein while defending his recent description of the controversy as a hoax.
• News outlets reported that no documentation substantiates the informant assertion, and media figures highlighted the lack of evidence, with some reacting derisively on air.
• Attorney Bradley Edwards, who represents Epstein victims, said Trump previously provided helpful information to his probe, a fact Johnson’s allies appear to cite as context rather than proof of informant status.
• Transparency efforts advanced this week as victims and bipartisan lawmakers pressed for full disclosure, and a large batch of House-posted files drew criticism for being largely previously public.
• The White House did not respond to Johnson’s statement, and prior reporting said Pam Bondi privately warned the president his name appears multiple times in Epstein-linked materials.